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Friday, June 13, 2014

June 13th Garden update (Still transplanting & still harvesting)

I have had lettuce, spinach, kale, and peas sown since the beginning of April, so towards the middle of May I began harvesting ]varieties of lettuce. Below are recent photos of lettuce harvests. I expect to harvest from my lettuce garden for another month. I will
plant more greens at the end of the Summer to harvest a Fall crop.

Around the middle of May, we transplanted 60 Tomato plants in one of our gardens. Recently, we have added over 100 Tomato plants from our compost bins/Strawberry beds. As of now we're growing over 200 Tomato plants in the garden (below).

160+ Tomato Plants

Finally fruiting!

Several days ago I tilled, hoed, and transplanted 50 Cantaloupe plants in the second garden at my Grandparents. As you may be able to see in the photos below, I have 9 rows of Corn and three rows of Beans, and 8 rows dedicated to Cantaloupe.

I have 50+ other Cantaloupe plants as well-- I relocated over 20 Cantaloupe plants near the Tomato garden; and intend to
Transplant the remaining Cantaloupe plants at my Melon/Bean/Corn patch.

8 rows of 50 Cantaloupe plants

8 rows of 50 Cantaloupe plants

Cantaloupe removed from the patch, Transplanted to Tomato garden

20+ Cantaloupe plants near Tomato garden

Cantaloupe

As I relocated the Cantaloupe plants, I replaced them with Sweet Potato
plants (in the photo below). Our neighbors happened to have over
60 Sweet Potato plants, so we're experimenting to
see if they'll produce this year.

Relocated Cantaloupes to sunnier spot, then replaced with Sweet potatoes

Here are pictures of one of my Strawberry beds filled with the
Unidentified Squash or Melon plants. From all three of my Strawberry
beds, I made time today to take out the Tomato sprouts and put them in
water (till I find another spot for them).

Unidentified Squash or Melon plants between Strawberry plants

Unidentified Squash or Melon plants

Below are the Tomato sprouts I dug out of the
Strawberry beds. The Sweet Potato Sprouts were in the ALE8 box, and the
Cantaloupe sprouts were in the green container in the right side of the
photo below.

Tomato, Sweet Potato, and Cantaloupe sprouts

The Zucchini and Yellow Squash plants have grown much larger, as well as the Cucumber, Pumpkin and Butternut Squash plants. The Zucchini, Yellow Squash, Cucumbers, Pumpkin, and Cushaw plants are
in my main Garden, at my Grandparents, while other Squash plants are
growing around my Mother's yard.

Yellow Squash bloom

4 rows of Zucchini & 4 rows of Yellow Squash plants

4 rows of Yellow Squash

4 rows of Zucchini plants

Cucumber

Cucumber

Row of 200+ Cucumber

Row of Butternut Squash

Row of Pumpkin

Some Squash plants or Cantaloupe are growing in my Strawberry beds, so I will be Transplanting these into my Cantaloupe bed at my Grandparents.
One Butternut Squash plant is growing outside of the Strawberry beds, while others are growing in the Compost bin, as you can see below.

Butternut Squash outside of the Strawberry beds

Squash plant in Compost bin

Below you see what I have left to
Transplant to the gardens. Much of that is Pepper and
Tomato plants. I will use the rest of the Tomato plants to grow in pots,
and eventually transplant the Pepper plants near the Tomato Garden.
I had assumed the Pepper plants would be big enough to transplant several weeks ago, but I have refrained. Last year I made the mistake of Transplanting the Pepper plants
too early, at a smaller size. Beside my Tomato garden and row of Cantaloupe, I have a double row for the largest Pepper plants. So far I have Transplanted 10 Pepper plants to the garden.